A day removed from calling Jays’ bat-flipper Jose Bautista, “a fuckin’ disgrace” and bemoaning the preponderance of sissies “nerds” in MLB front offices, Hall Of Famer Rich “Goose” Gossage took exception Friday to Bryce Harper’s recent comments about, well, old motherfuckers like Gossage. From the Washington Post’s Dan Steinberg via ESPN 1000 Chicago :
“What does this kid know? This kid doesn’t know squat about the game, and [has] no respect for it,” Gossage said with audible disgust. “Here he is making millions of frickin’ dollars; that’s great. I’m happy for all the players and all the money that they’re making, because it’s hard-earned by all the players that came before these guys. Ninety percent of these guys never went through a strike, a work stoppage. They don’t know the blood sweat and tears that has been spent on what these guys are making. All we wanted was a piece of the pie. Marvin Miller did that, Curt Flood, from on up. My career started out on the first strike in 1972, and it ended in the last one in 1994, when we lost a World Series, which should have never happened, but it did. … We fought for everything these players are getting. So let me tell Bryce Harper something: go look at the history, figure it out and quit acting like a fool.”
So let it be noted, every time a bat is flipped, a pie is tossed, contemporary players are disrespecting the memory of Marvin Miller.